Jets looking to snap five-game losing streak

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This article was published 16/11/2015 (3641 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. LOUIS — Anthony Peluso, Adam Pardy and Michael Hutchinson will all be in the Winnipeg Jets lineup tonight against the St. Louis Blues as Winnipeg looks to snap a five-game losing streak and salvage something out of what’s been a disastrous road trip through the Central Division the past week.

Peluso will draw into the Jets lineup on the fourth line in place of Nic Petan, while Pardy will be seeing his first game action in almost a month in place of Ben Chiarot on a pairing with Dustin Byfuglien.

Hutchinson will get his second start in a row in the Jets net after an aborted start Saturday night. Hutchinson lasted just 12 minutes of the first period in Nashville, getting lifted after the Predators scored their third goal en route to a 7-0 thrashing of the Jets.

The other lineup change tonight is expected to see the Jets swap leftwingers on their top two lines, with Mathieu Perreault moving up to play with Bryan Little and Blake Wheeler while Andrew Ladd moves down to play with Mark Scheifele and Nikolaj Ehlers.

Scheifele said he’s thrilled with the opportunity to play with the Jets captain tonight. “He knows how to score, he knows the right places, he goes to the dirty areas and he plays a solid 200-foot game.

“It will be exciting to try and build some chemistry with him and I’m excited for tonight.”

The Jets will be facing a Blues team here tonight who also have something to prove after losing their last two games in a row.

Jets head coach Paul Maurice had a grin on his face as he talked about how he drew some consolation from watching film of the Blues’ last few games and seeing it’s not just his team that’s been stumbling on the ice lately.

“It’s interesting when you watch enough (film) you see the mistakes other teams make and you realize you’re not the only team making them. We just have a volume issue and we (need to) cut down a little volume and get back to our game,” said Maurice.

Blues forward Troy Brouwer said he’s expecting to see two very motivated teams tonight.

“They’re going to be hungry. They’re kind of in the same boat as us,” Brouwer said after the Blues morning skate.

Maurice did not have his team take the morning skate at Scottrade Center, electing instead to give his team a morning off after a gruelling schedule that’s seen the Jets play eight of their last nine games on the road.

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Maurice said his team is road weary right now, but that’s just an explanation, not an excuse, for his club’s recent struggles.

“It’s not an excuse but it is a factor,” said Maurice. “We’ve had an opportunity to see a lot of the National Hockey League cities and the payoff is you want to be .500 or better on the road and you want to be a good road team, but there’s some home games in the bank now.”

The Jets are 5-5-1 on the road overall heading into Monday night, but just 0-3 against the Central Division on the road and 2-4-0 overall against their division rivals.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek